One final roundup post from the NDP’s federal leadership campaign – with a focus on Jagmeet Singh’s first steps as the party’s new leader. – The Ribbon offers a roundtable discussion of Singh’s victory. And Ryan Tumulty and Enzo DiMatteo each interview Singh about his campaign and his next steps. – Brittany Andrew-Amofah discusses what ...

PHOTOS: The leader of the free world, listening to Neil Young on sound cancelling headphones. Click here for the soundtrack to this post. The confused looking elderly man with a comb-over to her left is thinking: “Who is that person?” Probably not in those exact words, though. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons.) Below: Angela Merkel and Vladimir ...

A couple of weeks back, I examined the role of endorsements in the federal NDP’s leadership race. Now, I’ll take a quick look at where the current fund-raising numbers and distribution stand – and how they figure to relate to the NDP’s previous leadership campaigns. The closest comparison to this campaign is of course the ...

In the federal NDP’s previous leadership campaign, Tom Mulcair managed to release numerous policy proposals without offering any hint of what he’d do as leader. Starting from the (correct) assumption that a frontrunner could likely find his way to victory simply by minimizing controversy, Mulcair released policy planks which were based almost entirely on the ...

The latest from the federal NDP’s leadership campaign… – Marie-Danielle Smith reports that Jagmeet Singh is laying the groundwork to join the race. And Steve Paikin offers his take as to what that might mean for the current candidates – while also raising the (seemingly unlikely) prospect that Thomas Mulcair might join the fray. – ...

This and that from the NDP’s leadership campaign. – Among the coverage of the first leadership debate which I hadn’t linked before, Karl Nerenberg offers both a ranking and a review. And Yves Engler asks why the first debate largely avoided foreign policy issues – though there’s still plenty of campaign left in which to ...

PHOTOS: Can you not quite shake the feeling, like the Canadian voter at left, things keep happening over and over again? Actual Canadian voters may not appear exactly as illustrated. Below: Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair and NDP Democratic Reform Critic Nathan Cullen. So long, electoral reform! ...

It has been fascinating to watch the Alberta New Democratic Party transition from being skeptical of oil pipelines as opposition to fairly effective advocates for pipelines as government. While the approval of the Trans-Canada Keystone XL Pipeline from Hardisty to… Continue Reading →

PHOTOS: Your blogger, in hat, contemplates the difference between the renamed Conservative Party of Alberta and the renamed Conservative Party of Alberta. That’s not a typo. See Prediction No. 9 below for an explanation. Actual Alberta political commentators may not appear exactly as illustrated in this screenshot. Below (with predictions): Former Progressive Conservative MLA Sandra ...

PHOTOS: Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley. Below: Calgary MLA Sandra Jansen, elected as a Progressive Conservative and now a member of the NDP, Municipal Affairs Minister Danielle Larivee, and the late Jim Prentice, the last PC premier of Alberta. 2016: It was the International Year of the Bean. I kid you not … OK, technically, ...

Assorted content to end your week. – Alex Hemingway reviews the evidence on two-tiered medicine from around the developed world, and concludes that a constitutional attack on universal health care would only result in our paying more for less. – Marc Lee takes a look at the national climate change framework released last week and ...

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Roy Romanow writes about the dangers of focusing unduly on raw economic growth, rather than measuring our choices by how they actually affect people’s well-being: At the national level, the picture that emerges over the past 21 years is a GDP rebounding post-recession but Canadians literally continuing to ...

The NDP delegates supported the ‘Leap Manifesto’ at their convention but rejected Tom Mulcair as the leader. He left the stage went behind the curtain and then shortly re-emerged with the news that he Read more…

PHOTOS: Then prime minister Stephen Harper with his strategic brain trust, back when they still seemed like the masters of Canada’s political universe and would seem so for a few more weeks. (Source unknown.) Below: Screen shots of Mr. Harper’s Aug. 2, 2015, news conference announcing the call of the Oct. 19 federal general election ...

By Éric Grenier, for CBC News The Manitoba Progressive Conservatives under Brian Pallister won a majority government in a historic fashion Tuesday night, putting up some of the biggest numbers by any party in Read more…

Last week, I wrote that the NDP should be careful about assuming that changes in leadership would necessarily help in a needed process of party renewal. Obviously, both elected to seek out new leadership. And so in this week’s column, I point out that leadership races shouldn’t put on hold any answer to the broader ...

In the past couple of days I’ve read a few tweets and quotes in articles from people suggesting that it would be inappropriate for Thomas Mulcair to remain as interim leader of the NDP after his failure in the leadership review vote at the NDP convention in Edmonton. I understand their argument. If a majority ...

PHOTOS: Alberta Premier Rachel Notley is not tall, but she casts a long shadow on both sides of the political aisle. She is seen here addressing the national NDP convention in Edmonton yesterday in a tough, memorable speech. Below: Federal NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair at the conference yesterday; delegates applaud Ms. Notley’s remarks, presumably those ...

Sadly, there are far too many half-baked outside arguments being made about the federal NDP’s leadership review and how it connects to provincial-level choices. (To be clear, I contrast those against some genuine concerns being raised by members.) But let’s highlight one particularly telling example of how the NDP in general is being misrepresented by ...

PHOTOS: Thomas Mulcair in Edmonton … shortly before the disappointing federal election on Oct. 19, 2015. Below: Canadian Labour Congress President Hassan Yussuff, former NDP MP and leadership candidate Peggy Nash, and influential Alberta union leader Doug O’Halloran. This probably isn’t a very nice way to put it, but the question everyone in Edmonton was ...